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HENRY D. GILPIN, 



July till, 1834„ 




Mifflin & Parry, Printers, 99 S. Second Street. 



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A SPEECH 



DELIVERED AT THE 



BB»ZOCRATZC CEIiEBRATXOH 



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BY THE CITIZENS OF THE SECOND CONGRESSIONAL DIS- 
TRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

OP THE 

- i ^-■ 

or 

The M^ecUiration ot Inilepenilence^ 
July 4tli 1834, 

BY HENRY D. GILPIN. 



[Published by the Committee of Arrangement.] 






^ 



Holahan'a Hotel, 8th July, 1834. " 
To Henry D Gilpin, Esq. 

Dear Sir: At the request of the Committee of Arrangement for cele- 
brating the Anniversary of American Independence, by the Democratic 
citizens of the City of Philadelphia, I annex an extract from their mi- 
nutes of this date. 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

HENRY SIMPSON, Sec'y- 
On motion Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to 
Henry D.Gilpin for his excellent Oration, delivered on the 4th instant, and 
that he be requested to furnish a copy of it for publication. 



Philadelfihia, 9th July, 1834. 

To Henry Simpson, Esq. Sec'y. 

Dear Sir: I inclose for the, Committee of Arrangement a copy of the 
remarks made by me at the celebration at M'Arann's Garden on the 4th 
instant. I beg you to express to the committee my sense of the compli- 
ment they have paid me, in the request communicated by you, 

I aro, very respectfully, yours, 

H. D. GILPIN. 



DEMOCRATIC FESTIVAL, 

JULY FOURTH, 1834. 



President. 
GEORGE M. DALLAS. 

Vice Presidents. 



Henry Horn, 
Samuel B. Davis, 
William J. Lciper, 
Samuel Badger, 
Charles K. Servoss, 
Michael Nisbet, 
Wilson Taylor, 
Robert Adams, 



Joseph Worrelly 
Thomas Roney, 
George W. Try on, 
Lewis Taylor, 
William Ruff, 
Alexander Diamond, 
Levi EUmaker. 



i 



Orator of the Day. 
Henry D. Gilpin. 

Reader of the^Declaration. 
Henry Horn. 

Committee of Invitation. 
Henry Simpson, Wm. Ruff, 

Benjamin Miffli-n, Lewis Taylor, 

Wm. J. Leiper, Theodore Evans. 

GUESTS. 
Senators. 
Thos. H. Benton, of Missouri, John Tipton, of Indiana, 
Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, 

Representatives in Coivgress. 
Robert T. Lytle, of Ohio, George R. Gilmer, of Georgia, 

William Allen, of Ohio, Edward Kavenaugh, of Maine. 

Judge G. W. Campbell, of Tenn. Gov. Wm. Findlay, of Pa. 

Mr. Pope, of Va. Co). Wm. Dnane, of Pa. 

Mr. Sibley, of Mass. Dr. Wilmer Worlhington, of Pa. 
Commodore Chas. Stewart, 



SPEECH. 



More than eight hundred years after the foundation of Rome, 
a Grecian traveller, visiting the vast mistress of the world, 
found her citizens assembled to celebrate the day on which a band 
of shepherds had first traced the boundaries of the infant re- 
public. The festival had been kept sacred through each succeed- 
ing age. The people who then embraced, within their extended 
empire, all the nations of the earth; who had spread the blessings 
of commerce, civilization and the arts from seven little hills on the 
shores of the Tiber, to the remotest oceans and the wildest deserts, 
cherished, with sacred regard, the day when a few bold and 
oppressed husbandmen sought a refuge where they could establish 
their own institutions, and protect their own privileges, by a 
social compact framed among themselves. The festival was not 
established with the bloody rites which marked all the other days 
consecrated by public celebrations; no slaughtered victims stained 
the altars of the gods; no smoking entrails were examined by the 
priesthood; nothing that had life was offered to propitiate the di- 
vinities who had watched over the birthday of Rome; but the 
ministers were crowned with chaplets of flowers, the people 
brought offerings of early fruits, and as night closed the solem- 
nity, the streets of the city, the surrounding villages, and the 
rural abodes were lighted up by bonfires and enlivened by danc- 
ing and song. Year after year, the citizens of that proud repub- 
lic — their breasts imbued with the spirit of independence, and 
their rights as freemen guarded by the laws they had made — 
sacredly cherished the remembrance of that day. After the 
ancient energy was departed, even their descendants dwelt with 
conscious satisfaction on the period when the Roman people 
exerted their own majesty; when they successfully guarded the 
republican institutions against the secret or the open ambition of 
designing men, and from factions formed to elevate the wealthy or 
the proud upon the ruin of popular rights. The spirits yet un- 
corrupted loved to recur to the lessons of patriots who had cher- 
ished the genuine principles of freedom; to deeds where life was 

2 



held a trifling iacrificc if national honor was at stake; to laws 
and institutions calculated to preserve the direct and practical 
interference of the people, in all the measures connected with 
their own welfare. It was not until the remembrance of these 
things passed away, that the spirit of the republic was gone, 
and the liberties of its citizens were overthrown. It was not 
until immense wealth was gradually accumulated in the hands 
of comparatively few ; till privileged associations of individu- 
als took advantage of their powers and position to assume an in- 
fluence never intended to be conferred; till the silent and stealthy 
but sure and rapid march of intrigue, of selfishness and ambition 
had penetrated into the very centre of popular rights — that the 
republic was found only to be a name, and the people in reality 
nothing but instruments or slaves. Then indeed these festivities 
became but an idle ceremony — idle to the thoughtless, but to those 
whose bosoms the love of country yet warmed, the painful emblem 
of a freedom that existed no more — the sad proof, that if a people 
would guard their own power in the government of themselves, 
they must watch, daily and nightly, the inroads of corruption and 
ambition, and tear from them, before it becomes familiar to their 
eyes, the mask they are always ready to assume. The annual 
feast, which marks the birth of their republic, must not be cele- 
brated alone with the symbols of joy — with assemblages of those 
who merely recall the memory of the past; but it must bring together 
the people to weigh well the principles on which their institutions 
have been formed, to review the gradual progress of events, and 
see whether, under any specious pretext, they have been pervert- 
ed or abused; to dwell on the actual position of their affairs, and 
to decide whether they preserve, not merely in name, but in po- 
sitive and practical efficiency, all the benefits which their forefa- 
thers intended to secure when they laid the corner stone of the re- 
public. 

We are here assembled, fellow citizens, after fifty-eight years 
have passed away, to celebrate the birthday of our republic. As 
the Romans did, we hail it with joy ; we hang over us the 
emblems of festivity and peace ; we surround the names of its 
founders with chaplets of flowers; and we hold their deeds and 
memories in warm and grateful remembrance. It would be a task 
fraught with pleasure— our hearts would, respond to it — to cele- 
brate their actions, to repeat the sacred traditions of their person- 
al sacrifices and their public zeal. Beneath the shades of this 
grove we might dwell upon the past, recall to ourselves how our 



7 

fathers acted in their days, how our beloved country has held its 
onward way in arts, in happiness and in fame, and how its noble 
institutions and the lofty character of its sons have made it, even 
in this early time of its history, among the fairest of human things. 
But such a celebration would evince a vain and weak, if even a 
pardonable, feeling. It would be to let slip, in thoughtless cere- 
monies, the period for performing an important and patriotic duty. 
If we have not the same cause for bold and vigorous conduct which 
animated the sages of 1776, we have other duties equally sacred to 
perform. It was theirs to preserve hallowed rights, republican in- 
stitutions, the principles of a fierce democracy from a foreign foe. 
It is ours to see that all these are now as safe as they were at the 
moment our ancestors saved them from that foe. What matters it 
to us, if we have lost the virtuous impulses from which freedom 
alone can spring, whether they have been yielded to the hand of vio- 
lence from abroad, or sunk beneath the silent inroads of ambition, 
of dissention, of weakness, or of corruption at home? What mat- 
ters it to us, whether our liberties are avowedly lost, or whe- 
ther they are subverted in effect by policy altogether at vari- 
ance with them? As in the later days of the republic of Rome, 
year after year, when we thus met together, might show us the 
same outward forms of government, but the real, the animating 
spirit would be gone — the true voice of the people would be 
drowned by the increased and undue influence of power, meant to 
be subordinate; by the combinations of a false ambition, or the in- 
terested motives of powerful classes of individuals, who would, for 
purposes of transient and selfish interest, forget or overlook the 
real welfare of their country. 

The duty, then, of American citizens who assemble on the 
Fourth of Jul)^, is not merely to celebrate the day of their inde- 
pendence. It is not even mainly to do this. Their proper duty is, 
to examine the present, and to look forward to the future. To see 
that the just motives which actuated our forefathers then, actuate 
their descendants now. To observe whether our present mea- 
sures and policy are founded on, and sustain them. To watch 
the conduct of those who have been elevated to ofHces of trust, 
confidence and honor. To examine the career and explore the 
designs of ambitious men, who aim at personal advancement or 
distinction. To pledge ourselves, with a solemnity as sacred as 
that of the signers of the great charter which has just been read, 
to do in these days, as they did then, whatever is necessary to 



preserve what they established, honestly and usefully, not merely 
in theory and name. 

And never, my countrymen, on any previous anniversary of 
our independence, have American citizens assembled Avith this 
duty imposed upon them more sacredly than now. At no mo- 
ment of our political existence have they been required to weigh 
with greater care the measures and conduct of their public men, 
to examine the practical results of their policy, and to revert 
to the great ends of social government, and the means by which 
they must be maintained. No foreign enemy roams along our 
shores, no desolating scourge hovers over our homes. Peace ex- 
tends her olive wand, and heaven seems more abundantly to heap 
on us the prosperity and the bounteous blessings it has always 
showered, with a gracious hand. Yet the voice of domestic 
strife is not silent. The halls that should be sacred to patriotic 
deliberation, ring with the echoes of faction. The intrigues of am- 
bition, and the designs of avarice, are at work in every corner of the 
land, and the purposes of the one and the other are to be subserved 
amid the tumult they have conspired to excite. Yet in truth, the 
contest 'with these is never difficult, their overthrow is never 
doubtful, the triumph is never uncertain, when the determination is 
resolutely made. 

Fellow citizens, factions have ever been the curse of republics. 
The leaders of factions have ever been the designing, the disap- 
pointed, the malignant — those who are actuated, not by a lofty, but 
by a low and selfish ambition. Party must, and always does, per- 
haps always should exist, in free governments; but it is founded 
on principles, it rallies men together, it sacrifices smaller objects 
for the attainment of greater ends. Faction has no principle; 
sometimes it professes one, and at others the reverse; it is now 
aiming to destroy an individual, and then it becomes his accomplice 
or his tool; it carries its ends by corruption, it deals in falsehood 
and misrepresentation, it forms unnatural alliances, it digs the grave 
of patriotism, and pollutes the fountains of national honor. In 
the early days of our republic, the citizens of America, new to the 
political institutions they had framed, differed essentially as to the 
principles on which they were to be administered. Parties were 
formed on this difference; these opposing principles became the 
subject of anxious deliberation; and after a struggle, arduous but 
determined in its character, the democracy of the country nobly 
and signally prevailed. The republican party became avowedly 



9 

9 

triumphant; the ranks of its opponents dwindled into a small mi- 
nority of the people. A course of policy, distinguished by the 
reduction of the public debt, the abolition of the bank of the United 
States, the security of the navigation of the Mississippi, and the 
extension of our boundaries to the great western ocean, was ren- 
dered more illustrious by the glories cf a war in which our flag 
waved in triumph on every ocean, and the eagle of victory perched 
on the standards of our armies. Throughout this long career, 
the mutterings of faction were not always suppressed; and the de- 
signs of ambition could not always be disguised. Many manly 
and generous spirits opposed to the principles of our party, did in- 
deed act nobly with us in the common cause of country, but 
there were not wanting those, who alike in the hour of prosperity 
and of trial, were deaf to the voice of patriotism, though they could 
listen to the whispers of selfishness and ambition. 

In the natural consequences of a war — the derangement of the 
finances, the accumulation of the public debt, the necessity of large 
supplies of manufactures, and the want of ready means of transpor- 
tation, the opponents of the republican party saw a favourable 
occasion to introduce into the system of our general government, 
those broader views of power which hitherto the people had refused 
to approve. Many of them, honestly actuated by the belief that 
they were those on which our government ought to be ad- 
ministered, sustained them now as they had sustained them before; 
while ambitious leaders, found in their ranks, as in those of all 
political associations, saw in these, topics which might be ser- 
viceably used for their own ends. Even some who maintained 
inflexibly original democratic sentiments, believed that a change 
of policy, required by the exigencies of the times, was not at 
variance with them. The result was the establishment of anew 
national bank, intended to be a useful fiscal agent, subject to strict 
examination and control; thd protection, by a moderate tariff, of 
the domestic industry of the country; and the commencement of a 
plan of internal improvement, limited in extent, and confined to 
objects of evident national utility. Well were it for us, if the 
system so established had been maintained in the same spirit 
with which it was founded. Well were it, if it had not been 
perverted and misused to subserve political designs. The bounda- 
ries, however, were quickly overleaped; the promotion of manufac- 
tures was converted into a scheme of partizan protection designed 
to aid the aspirations! of certain politicians; the expenditure of pub 



10 

lie money for internal improvements, became a notorious means of 
bargaining for the advancement of personal popularity in particular 
districts; and the national bank began to assume a power indepen- 
dent of the government, of which it was the agent, and to establish 
an influence over the community, which might be employed for 
purposes oppressive, selfish, or corrupt. These consequences, 
gradually developed, were at length fully displayed during the ad- 
ministration of John Quincy Adams — a president having less 
than one third of the electoral votes, and elevated to power 
against the will of the people, by means of a coalition, fortun- 
ately without a parallel in our history, a coalition with an old 
and avowed political rival, himself a candidate for the presidential 
chair, also rejected by the people. Could the consequences be 
doubtful? No. — The American people indignantly hurled from the 
offices of trust, men who had thus stolen unwarily into places of 
honour; the principles of the republican party were again assert- 
ed ; the chief place in the government was' confided to a man 
grown venerable in the service of his country, whose blood had 
been freely shed beneath her banners, whose integrity was un- 
sullied by the breath of suspicion, whose courage and decision were 
equal to every crisis, and whose cherished political maxims were 
those that had been ever maintained by the great democratic family. 
Representing as he has done the sentiments of the people, carrying 
out their honest wishes^ yielding to no motives of partizan ambi- 
tion, suffering himself to be the tool of no struggling or aspiring 
faction, we have seen the republican party rallying round him, and 
extricating us from the toils into which we had been deceitfully 
led. Internal commerce is no longer made the instrument of poli- 
ticians. The funds raised from the labours of the people, have 
been faithfully applied to lessen their burthens, not squandered 
with local, partial, and interested designs. Domestic manufactures 
are protected with aview to the general benefit, not'so as to excite 
vindictive contests. The quiet majesty of the laws is upheld 
against the designs of defeated political aspirants, who publish under 
the name of democracy doctrines which it would blush to own. 
The honor and fame of the American people are protected and ex- 
tended over distant countries, the wrongs of our citizens redressed, 
claims unjustly withheld readily discharged, and new sources of 
wealth opened to fearless enterprise. But above all this, through- 
out our land, the positive and practical spirit of democracy asserts 
its sway; the people rule now as they ruled thirty years 3go; they 



11 

are redeemed from the control of interested leaders; they see the 
government of their choice administered by men of their choice; 
they are carrying on triumphantly that struggle, which, in every 
republic, must be periodically carried on, between the great mass 
of the people, honest, conscientious, and straight forward, and 
those who, actuated by false theories, or by a misguided ambition, 
or by their peculiar position, or by considerations of personal inte- 
rest, are constantly at variance with them. 

Such, fellow citizens, has hitherto been the progress of affairs, 
gradually restoring the government, in the language of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, to "its republican tack." But the work is not yet accom- 
plished. As the contest hastens to its close, the struggle becomes 
more violent, and is attended with all the recklessness of anger and 
the fury of despair. The political events of the last eighteen 
months have no parallel in our domestic history. They display 
the last rally of a few politicians, who see close at hand the 
prostration of their ambitious designs; and the last struggle of a 
band of moneyed monopolists, who dread the inevitable termina- 
tion of privileges, heedlessly conferred on them, by which thek 
own interests have been served, at the expense of their fellow citi- 
zens. Disguise it as they may, the people of the United States know 
too well that this is now a contest between the democracy and the 
country on one hand, and, on the other, a coalition formed between 
political leaders already rejected by the peo])le, and the Bank of the 
United States, always distrusted by them, and only tolerated from a 
confidence and a hope, which have now been proved to be vain. 
Whatever disguise is assumed, whatever name is invoked, the evi- 
dent truth is this. If the clamour about executive usurpation is 
raised, what is it but an unflinching opposition on the part of the 
chief executive magistrate towards the Bank of the United States? 
If lamentations over popular errors are querulously uttered, what 
are they but a settled purpose on the part of the people to dis- 
card from their favour Clay, Webster, or Calhoun? Yes, fellow 
citizens, the history of the last eighteen months, is the history 
of a coalition between the bank for its selfish purposes, and a 
few factious politicians, for their own ambitious designs. It is to 
put down this coalition that all our efforts should be directed; it 
is the last battle the republican party has now to fight; it is a cause 
to which, before every other, they should pledge themselves on the 
anniversary of the Fourth of July. 

Never bave the annals of a republic presented a course of conduct 



12 

more presumpluouSj more intemperate, more at variance with the 
purity of institutions, the solemnity of public assemblies, the rights 
of citizens — nayj the common dictates of justice, and of public and 
private honour, than that displayed in the combined movements 
of the Bank of the United States, audits instruments and associates 
in Congress. 

Can it be doubted, that the framers of our Constitution never 
contemplated the existence of a corporation possessing such fearful 
powers, and so capable of placing itself beyond control, as the Bank 
of the United States? Little could they have designed that any 
thing, so intrinsically mean as a mere money-agent, should set itself 
up as the rival, nay the very master, of the people. Yet so have 
we permitted, year after year, this cancer to extend itself; so 
have we allowed this institution to advance, step by step, that we 
are at last startled at the power we have thoughtlessly given away 
— at the audacity a creature has ventured to assume, against 
those to whom it owes its existence. How frightful is its pow- 
er; how impudent its audacity! The fortunes of our citizens 
are elevated or depressed at its nod; the press is made silent or 
abusive at its decree; the laws of the land are perverted by sophis- 
try, or boldly violated to suit its purposes; the chosen officers 
of the American people are assailed with gross scurrility to gratify 
its malignity; and their representatives are treated with an insolent 
scorn, which would really be amusing, if the source whence it pro- 
ceeds were alone considered, and not the precedent it may afford 
to every public agent. These arc not matters of doubt, but they 
are recorded facts. They are facts which should never be for- 
gotten. They should serve as beacons to warn the people of the 
dangers upon which they were running. They should be incen- 
tives to renewed ardour in the present contest, for it is against these 
very things we are now contending — these very things are now to 
be put down, or else they may be always afterwards triumphantly 
perpetrated. Fellow citizens, you must forgive me if I repeat some 
of these facts. You have heard them before, but as the great char- 
ter of our freedom is read, over and again, every returning year, 
to keep its very language as well as its principles deeply impressed 
on our hearts, so on every occasion while our present great strug- 
gle goes on — the struggle between the country on one side, and 
the bank and its political allies on the other; between the too pa- 
tient master and the presumptuous servant — on every occasion 
when we are thus assembled, these facts should be repeated, that 



l3 



we may perpetually see what we have heen, and still are, expected 
submissively to bear. > 

Is the value of our property to be regulated — are our private 
fortunes to be raised or depressed — are the public revenues to be 
cut off— as suits the notions of a moneyed conclave, when it chooses 
to dabble in politics, or speculate in stocks? Every freeman would 
answer — No. Yet what has been the power and policy of this 
bank? In June, ISIS, it raised its discounts to the community to 
iS41,000,000 — in December following it had reduced them to 
§36, 000,000. In 1S26, in the same manner, we find its dis- 
counts in June §35,000,000— in December reduced to §30,000,000. 
In December 1S30, its discounts were §42,000,000— in May 1S32, 
they were increased to §70,000,000— in the following December 
they were reduced to §61,000,000— in August 1833, they were 
increased to §64,000,000 — and in December 1833, they were 
reduced to §54,000,000. In January, 1831, it had §17,600,000 
of its bank notes in circulation, sustained by §11,000,000 of specie; 
in January, 1832, it had increased its circulation to §23,000,000, 
while its specie was reduced to §7,500,000. What have been the 
consequences of so wanton a course ? Repeated periods of fallacious 
prosperity, and of unforeseen difficulty and suffering, among the 
people, who have been made the victims of this cupidity, without 
pity or remorse. No matter to what motives this conduct is to 
be ascribed — whether to erring judgment, to selfish speculation, 
or to political intrigue — it is such as no power, paramount or 
subordinate, can exercise, without endangering and destroj^Ing 
every thing we ought to hold dear. But when we come to exam- 
ine the times and circumstances, we find Its actions are directed 
with a view to operate on the political affairs of the country, and to 
affect the elections of the representatives of the people. 

Bad as this is, It does not exceed the faithlessness with which, 
while it was throwing out its money from one end of the na- 
tion to the other. It secretly made arrangements to postpone the 
payment of the national debt, though it had, at the very time, suffi- 
cient public money for the purpose in its vaults. 

Growing bolder, however, It wa^ not long content thus, under the 
forms of business, to cast its weight into the scale of politics. It 
was not enough to operate indirectly on the industry and resources 
of the people. The press, the fountain of information, was to be 
secretly pensioned, and the money of the government as well as 

3 



14 

individualSj unlinown to themselves, was to be freely expended to 
aid the bank and its political allies. The extent to which this 
has been carried, and all the sums of money that have thus been 
lavished, are yet unknown; they are veiled mysteriously by the 
bank from the public eye; they are secrets it is afraid or ashamed 
to disclose. But may we not judge from what we do know? May 
we not form some estimate,, from what has been already developed, 
in the examinations of Congress and its own confessions? Look 
at them! 

The publishers of the New York Inquirer i^52,000 

The publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer 32,000 

The publisher of the United States Telegraph 20,000 

The publishers of the National Intelligencer 80,000 

To these are to be added the sums distributed to printers, in all 
parts of the United States, for publishing documents which are 
said to be for the defence of the bank, but which, in many in- 
stances, were electioneering articles or pamphlets. This sum 
is admitted by Ihe directors to amount to ^58,000, and makes an 
aggregate paid to subsidize the press, of nearly ^250,000 ? 
How small a proportion it may be of the whole sum thus il- 
legally expended, time perhaps will show; how notoriously in- 
sufficient is the security given for a large part of it, is already 
known; but the very fact is one that must alarm every virtuous 
citizen. , 

Turn from these acts to the management of the bank itself. 
Does the history of any institution, in any country, present evidences 
of misconduct more glaring, of violations of the spirit, nay, letter of 
a charter, more wanton and violent? The functions of directors 
transferred to secret committees; loans made contrary to the rules, 
and on security the most worthless; the expenditure of money in- 
trusted to an officer without control as to amount; no vouchers re- 
quired from him for the disbursements he thus makes; the cor- 
respondence seldom or never submitted to the board; in a word, all 
the essential duties, for which the managers of such a corpora- 
tion are chosen, virtually nullified. Do the officers appointed by 
the President and Senate oppose these illegal acts, or refuse to con- 
ceal them from the people? They are denounced and misrepre- 
sented, though their statements cannot be refuted, in manifestos 
issued from the bank. Does the Secretary of the Treasury exer- 
cise the powers given him by law, to remove the public revenue 
from the custody of such agents? He is attacked in language the 



15 



K 



most scurrilous, officially promulgated by the bank. Does the 
President of the United States express his opinions on the legality 
or propriety of such acts? He is assimilated to the wretched crimi- 
nals who counterfeit the notes of the bank. Do the immediate 
delegates of the American people, who have incorporated it, 
placed their money in its vaults, and own seven millions of its ca- 
pital — does the House of Representatives itself, appoint a com- 
mittee, as the charter authorises, to inspect its books and ex- 
amine its proceedings? They are treated with absolute contempt; 
all investigation is denied^ and, with charges openly made, which, 
if untrue, can be refuted at once, it shrinks, with the conscious- 
ness of guilt, behind the shield of legal subterfuge. Fellow citi- 
zens, why is it that these disclosures are refused? Why is it 
we are told the bank should not be called on to criminate itself? 
Innocence never offers such a plea — it courts the light — it chal- 
lenges the most searching scrutiny of the accuser. What! is it 
come to this — that an agent of the American people, intrusted 
with their public moneys; can say that he will give no account 
of his stewardship, because he cannot be compelled to criminate 
himself ! Dark must be the catalogue of offences, where it is ne- 
cessary to resort to a pretext such as this! 

Are not these facts, thus briefly recalled to your notice, strik- 
ing evidences of the importance of the political contest in which 
we are engaged? It is this institution, thus abused, thus cor- 
rupt, thus determined wantonly to exercise its power, thus dis- 
regarding its own charter, and setting at defiance the people, the 
constituted authorities, and the very laws of the land — it is this 
overgrown moneyed monopoly, the abuses of which we are now 
called upon to crush, or submit ourselves for the future to its re- 
novated arrogance and power. 

That we should do so, is its own design, and that of the despe- 
rate political leaders, who, linked with it in an unholy alliance, use 
it, as it uses them, to promote the interested and selfish views of 
one another, utterly disregarding the real welfare of the nation. 
To this end, all original principles, all previous views, all past an- 
tipathies, and all former preferences have been sacrificed ; and on 
the floor of congress, and from one end of the country to the 
other, a common feeling brings together those who uphold the bank 
of the United States, and those, hitherto frowned on and despised ' 
by the people, who yet vainly hope, by its aid, to taste the cup of 
success. What a spectacle is presented! All consistency is con- 



16 

lemptuously discarded; disunion is allowed quietly to sleep in the 
embraces of federalism; the praises of the bank arc chanted by 
lips that declaimed against it in tonesof bitterness and hatred; the 
force-bill has becomCj in the eyes of those lately its denouncers, a 
harmless manifesto; and nullification, v/hose terrors were notlonij 
ago depicted in hues of blood, has dwindled to an insignificant 
phantom. A faction, motley and deceitful, usurps the privileges of 
legislative power; a political harlequin, tricked off in a hundred 
colours, plays his antics on the stage; and a king of shreds and 
patches wields his gilded truncheon, as if the American people 
were submissive to his sway. But already has the heartless exhi- 
bition lasted too long; already has the mask fallen off and disclos- 
ed the distorted features it was meant to conceal; already are the 
expected sounds of applause, converted into the murmurs of dis- 
approbation and disgust. 

Who can look back, with patience, on the proceedings of the 
opposition party in congress, during the session that has closed? 
Who can fail to trace in it an alliance with the bank of the United 
States, having for its sole objects the perpetuation of power to that 
institution, and the recovery of political influence for its allies? 
Acting on these principles have we not seen a course of debate and 
partizan warfare — I cannot say legislation — hitherto unknown to 
our history, and I trust never to be repeated? Language, before 
unheard in our national halls, has been freely uttered under the 
sanction of legislative privilege. The President of the United 
States, a man whose gray hairs might have protected him from in- 
sult; whose long life devoted to his country might have saved him 
from wanton abuse; nay, whose very position, as was_ known to 
those who abused him, took from him the opportunity to reply; 
this venerable man has been insulted in debate, has been the ob- 
ject of public censure without the permission to defend himself, 
and has been refused the small right of placing, on the public 
records, his own vindication. The Secretary of the Treasury, a 
statesman of unsullied purity of character, against whose moral 
worth slander cannot raise a suspicion, and whose admirable 
talents have been proved, on every single occasion, when hia 
opponents ventured to meet him in argument on the measures he 
has proposed or sustained; this officer, whose manly firmness and 
sagacious judgment have won for him the ardent good wishes of 
his countrymen, has been fiercely' attacked where he had not the 
privilege to answer, and has at length been driven from the 



17 

councils of his country, which he so well served and adorned, a 
victim to political rivals, who feared the superiority of his genius, 
and felt little of the loftiness of his spirit. Are the sacred institu- 
tions of our country to be thus disgraced for the purposes of poli- 
tical success? Are the characters of men to be attacked under the 
pretext of legislative privilege? Are the executive sessions of the 
American Senate to be turned, by an accidental majoi'ity, into 
the clandestine inquisition of apolitical junto? How is a citizen 
to defend himself from false aspersions, when his actions are per- 
verted, his sentiments misrepresented, or slanders uttered against 
him, unknown to himself, or to which he is not allowed to reply? 
How is he to be protected against discussions not carried on before 
the face of day? Why are not the men, who thus give their votes, 
and pass their sentence of condemnation, called upon to make 
their charges where they may be fully known, and, if they can 
be, fairly repelled? It never was the meaning of the constitution, 
it never was consistent with the feelings or spirit of the American 
people, that a secret conclave should pass upon its citizens un- 
heard; should listen to the whispers of enmity or slander; should 
receive the letters of private informers, or be tutored by the in- 
structions of personal malignity. As well might we witness in 
our republic such days as those, the most odious that history re- 
cords, when three Roman candidates for power, selfishness just 
suppressing their bitter rivalry and distrust, met together on 
a little island, mutually to denounce and proscribe the spirits 
they could not subdue. As well might we see erected, amid the 
gorgeous columns of our own capitol, the lion's mouth that is now 
closed, even in the halls of a Venetian senate, and surrender our 
characters and honor to the secret malice of political opponents or 
personal foes. 

Nothing proves, fellow citizens, more clearly, that the contest we 
are now waging, is one in which these political leaders know that 
they are struggling desperately for power, than the intemperate 
language of their debates, and the want of manly feeling dis- 
played so repeatedly on the floor of congress. I do not allude 
to the coarse slanders of the Ewings, or the Hardins, or the 
small politicians, who seem to be the necessary vents of that scur- 
rility, to which refinement of sentiment, or the impulses of genius, 
' could not condescend. But how great must be the stake — how im- 
perioys the requisitions of faction — when she has compelled one 
who lately held the second station in the republic, to sacrifice 



18 

himself on her polluted shrine? What is the proper designa^ 
tion of a man, who could, with no conceivable motive but ma- 
lignity towards a more honoured rival, state, without a blush, 
in the face of the American Senate, that his absence at the opening 
of successive sessions, was not a matter of design; could desert the 
political principles he had formerly avowed, and endeavor to over- 
turn the constitution he had by solemn oaths repeatedly pledged 
himself to support; could seek refuge in the peaceful halls of legis- 
lation at Washington, far from the scene of strife he had himself 
raised, at the very moment, when, in all human probability, his 
braver associates would be called on to sustain with their swords, 
doctrines intended to subserve his individual ambition? The terms 
proper to designate a course such as this, I cannot condescend 
to use, even by following his own example, set in the august 
halls of legislation, and under the sanction of legislative privi- 
lege. How great must be the stake for which the bank of the 
United States knows herself to be playing — how strong must be 
the influence she has brought to bear, in her contest with the peo- 
ple — how potent must be the means that great machine can em- 
ploy; when, as we have seen, fellow citizens, before our own im- 
mediate eyes, she can allure from its haunts, that selfishness which 
never before turned from a private to a public end; never before 
made a voluntary sacrifice in a community, where few have failed 
to give their little aid, to some one cause of charity, of literature or 
of art. To me it seems a circumstance, among the most degrading, 
in the conduct of the present leaders of the opposition, that those 
who have received large sums from the bank, either as loans or as 
rewards for services performed, should yet feel no hesitation to 
record their votes as legislators in its behalf. It is true we can 
scarce wonder, that men so bound to an institution, should impugn 
the motives of those who censure it, when unable to refute their 
allegations, or should indulge in petty slander on the one hand, or 
a natural but lamentable adulation on the other. The sensibility 
of a generous mind must be dead, which utters the language and 
adopts the arts of an advocate, while holding the position of a 
statesman; and who would envy that coldness, real or assumed, 
which affects to despise an imputation founded in truth, that can- 
not consist with unbiassed judgment or disinterested conduct? 

While the floor of congress has thus been misused, the current 
business of the countr}^ has been neglected, and important mea- 
sures have been suffered to sleep, week after ^Yeek. Heavy ex- 



19 

penses have been incurred during sessions occupied by this use- 
less declamation or vindictive attack. Large sums have been 
added to the contingent fund of congress and to the public appro- 
priations, for the purpose of upholding the publishers of partizan 
newspapers. The mails have been overburdened and the privi- 
leges of franking abused, in order to disseminate the misrepre- 
sentations that were profusely poured out. It appears by official 
documents that the publisher of the United States Telegraph, a 
newspaper devoted to nullification, and the organ of one por- 
tion of the opposition, received for public printing, including 
the cost of paper, Sl06,400, in a single year, that of 1832; ami 
that ^105, 000 have been advanced for reprinting certain pub- 
lic documents, which is done by the publishers of the National 
Intelligericer, a newspaper in the immediate ownership of the 
bank, and the organ of another portion of the opposition. Nay 
more, although in the estimate furnished by the Secretary of the 
Senate, before the commencement of the session just closed, he 
requires the large sum of ^18,000 for printing for that body, 
will it be believed that he was obliged to ask, before the ad- 
journment, an additional appropriation of ^35,500 for "printing 
for the current business of the Senate," making in the whole the 
incredible sum of ^53,500 for the printing of the Senate alone, 
during a single session? I have not by me the statement of the 
similar expenditure, in the last long session of 1832, but I have 
that of the preceding one of 1830, and I find the amount paid 
for printing to be ^1 1,408 57, or ^41,000 less than the estimate 
of this year. Facts like these require no comment, but they must 
convince the people that there are other objects in printing such 
voluminous masses of documents, besides the mere difiusion of 
information among them. To the efforts thus made, by means 
of official situation and power, and the extravagant or improper 
application of the public money, are to be added the attempts 
to spread distress throughout a prosperous community, by ha- 
rangues containing statements of the situation of various districts 
of country, utterly at variance with the actual situation of things. 
The credit of institutions has been wantonly attacked, the plana 
of commercial enterprize have been thwarted, and month after 
month has been suffered to pass away, in the hope of changing 
the steady purpose, and misguiding the sound sense of the people. 
Such, fellow citizens, is a sketch of the contest that has been 



> 



20 

waged, and the means that have been resorted to. Innuinera' 
hlc facts are within your recollections, illustrating them even more 
olearly than those to which I have referred. They prove, in a 
manner not to be disguised or misrepresented, the true nature of 
the struggle — a struggle that can only be terminated by the voices 
of the people, given at the polls. They show that the cries so 
loudly raised about executive usurpation, the destruction of com- 
mercial prosperity, the violations of the constitution, the union of 
the purse and sword, are but idle declamation, intended to conceal 
the real object. What executive usurpation has there been, but the 
change of the public nione3"s from the bank of the United States 
to the state banks? Where has commerce been injured, except by 
the direct oppression of the former, and the panic purposely ex- 
cited by its political allies? What clause of the constitution has 
been violated? In what single instance has the property of the 
people been unjustly taken from them, or the hand of military vio- 
lence displayed? No! — we are not to be thus deceived. We know 
and see the real meaning of all this. If the charter of the bank of 
the United States was renewed, there would be no cry of danger to 
the treasury. If Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, or Daniel Web- 
ster could obtain — vain hope! — the suffrages of the people, in 
their desperate struggle for the presidency, instead of a candidate 
who shall represent the principles and wishes of the vast body of 
the republican party, there would be no more clamour about a vi- 
olated constitution. It is to obtain these ends that all this turmoil 
has been raised; and that the country has been, for months past, 
kept in this state of unceasing agitation. 

And what is the result? Is the bank rechartcred, to aid in the 
coming contest, either directly by the influence of its money, or 
indirectly by its fearful power over the industry and property of 
the people? Have the obstacles and delays of the opposition been 
able to prevent the passage of salutary laws, called for by the exi- 
gencies of the country? Have the commerce and internal prosperi- 
ty of the land, sunk under their prophecies, their maledictions, and 
their unceasing efforts to injure and destroy them? No ! — the 
spirit of the people has not been, and cannot be, either misled or 
put down. The noble phalanx of the Representatives, coming di- 
rectly from their ranks; the bold and unflinching minority of the 
Senators — a minority indeed in their body, but representing a great 
majority of the people; the Chief Magistrate, raised to his honora- 
ble post v/i than enthusiasm equalled only by that <lispliiyed towards 



21 

Washington and Jefferson; the spontaneous voice of tlie people, 
echoed from their hills and valleys, throughout the vast extent of 
the Union — these have so far carried us through this strugo-je 
against moneyed corruption and political intrigue; and they are 
the guaranties and harbingers of triumphs yet more signal. After 
a debate prolonged for four months, a solemn resolution was ad- 
opted in the House of Representatives, by a majority of one hun- 
dred and thirty-three votes out of two hundred and twelve, that 
the bank of the United States ought not to be rechartcred. In 
spite of every obstacle and delay; in spite of repeated threats that 
obnoxious clauses and amendments would be introduced; the bills 
making appropriations for works of great public utility, and the 
continuance of the government, were passed. Laws to restore 
the metallic currency of the country to a proper standard, and lo 
substitute a sounder medium for that of paper, were enacted. 
Ample provision was made to guard the public treasure deposited 
in the state banks, and to secure to the government benefits in the 
management of its funds, at least equal to those ever obtained from 
the bank of the United States, without the dangers incident to the 
employment of that unfaithful and arrogant agent; this indeed the 
political combination of the Senate, had unfortunately the power 
to thwart, but it cannot be long before, even there, the voice of 
the people is heard, and their will is carried into effect. 

While the true servants of the nation have thus held their 
onward course, and secured a noble triumph over the bank and 
the political factions, in the legislative halls, what have the people 
themselves been doing, to disprove the calumnies and make vain 
the efforts of their foes? Over all our wide land, prosperity waves 
her wing; and every broad lake and winding river, the fertile 
prairies and the seats of commerce, prove that where men have pro- 
perly resisted this system of alarm, the oppression of a moneyed 
oligarchy could be exerted only against those who, incautiously 
trusting it, or brought beneath its influence by accident or design, 
might be made directly to feel its heartless power. Yes, my 
countrymen, more than this, they prove, in a manner infinitely bet- 
ter than mere assertion or argument, that the sad lamentations and 
the mournful prophecies poured forth by selfish politicians, as if 
they uttered the oracles of truth, have been as entirely erroneous 
as they certainly were unpatriotic, unwise and unjust, 

" I know an opinion is entertained,'" exclaims the senator from 

4 



22 

Massachusetts, when descanting on the sad change to be produced 
by removing the public moneys from his favorite bank, " among 
" those who have the best means of forming a correct judgment, 
*' that there may be a falling off in the receipts of the customs, 
*' from a quarter to a third of the amount anticipated. It is my ex- 
*' pectation," he afterwards adds, "that the receipts of the year 
<' will fall below the estimate, probably to the extent I have men- 
" tioned; and that this effect will be produced by no other cause^ 
" than the deranged state of things occasioned by the removal of 
''the public moneys." Such is the mournful prophecy; how has it 
been fulfilled in the few months elapsed since it was made? The 
receipts of the first quarter of the year are produced, on the de- 
mand of these political alarmists, and they are found to establish 
exactly the contrary of what had been foretold. The income from 
the customs positively exceeded the estimate produced at the com- 
mencement of the session; that from the public lands had doubled, 
yes, more than doubled what it was in the preceding year; and the 
actual available funds in the treasury amounted to more than eleven 
millions of dollars. 

"We have before us," exclaims a representative from Georgia, 
in the agony of distress, which brings the phantom of Caesar and 
all his tyranny before his eyes — "We have before us the prospect 
" of a suspension of specie payments." How has the prospect been 
verified? Why, during the very climax of this imaginary sufiering, 
the official returns show that there has been a clear importation 
into the United States, certainly of more than twelve, and prob- 
ably more than fourteen, millions of dollars in silver and gold. 

" The usual channels of business with the south and west are 
** broken up," cries an honorable member from Connecticut — 
" the risk of loss, the uncertainty and difficulty of remittance, and 
"the difference in the local currencies, exceed the profits of busi- 
*'ness; acceptances on consignments are stopped." One would 
think all commerce was at an end; that the ocean no longer 
brought us the products of other lands, or bore away our own; 
that the noble works of internal communication were utterly de- 
serted. How tally plain facts and figures with tliese pictures co- 
lored for effect? The duties on imports into New York were in 
the first quarter of 1833,^3,122,000 — of 1834, while this sad ruin 
hung over our land, S3, 249,000, or an increase of more than 
§120,000; at Baltimore the increase has been more than §70,000; 
at Richmond the duties have doubled; at Charleston they are near- 



23 

ly twice as much. The foreign arrivals at New York in the first 
five months of 1833 were 751 — during the same period of this un- 
happy year they increased to 795; at Boston they were, for the 
same time last year, 379 — this year they amount to 394. Sad evi- 
dences of the effect of removing the deposits on our foreign com- 
merce! But the channels of internal intercourse are broken up. 
Let us see! How is it with the noble canals of New York? There 
are now navigating it 2,453 boats, being an increase upon the num- 
ber registered last year of 593. At Albany and Troy, over whose 
desolate condition the senator from Kentucky especially mourned, 
the clearances this year have been 834 more than they were to the 
same period last year. The amount of toll received at Rochester 
this year, in the month of May, has exceeded the amount received 
during the same month last year ^2,371. The increase of toll at 
Brockport, whose distress memorial the senator from Massachusetts 
presented with the usual melancholy picture, was on the 1 June 
this year, ^1,300 more than on that day last year. The property 
cleared at Buffalo, coming from the lake which the senator from 
Ohio described as " a desert waste of waters," exceeded on the 
15 May 1834, that cleared on the same day last year, by 
more than three millions of pounds. How is it with our own 
Pennsylvania? The tolls on our canal up to the 1 May were 
three times the amount received on the same day last year. Five 
hundred canal boats had been registered up to that time. Cotton 
has been brought, with inconceivable rapidity and cheapness, from 
the remotest parts of Tennessee to the warehouses of our merchants. 
Yet it was about "the ruin and desolation" of this state so flour- 
ishing, her resources so abundant and her works so noble, that one 
of her own representatives in Congress, uniting in the same scheme 
of political panic, ventured to speak. How is it with Virginia? 
In the midst of these times of dreadful distress, the books of sub- 
scription to the stock of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Poto- 
mac Rail Road have been closed, and the Commissioners announce 
the gratifying information that more than ^300,000 v/ere at once 
subscribed; by November or December next it is believed it will 
be practicable to put thirty miles of it under contract; in January 
the contractors will be able to commence the execution of the work; 
and in three years it will probably be finished to Fredericksburg. 
How is it with our fair sister of the West? The tolls on the Mia- 
mi canal were g4,115 in May 1833; they are 1^5,560 in May 1834. 
The tolls on the Ohio canal were ^15,735 in May 1833; they ara 



24 

S25,231 in May 1834; yet, in the prophetic visions of Congress, 
these noble works are described as solitary and deserted. 

"Produce," exclaims one honorable Senator, alluding to the in- 
terior of the state of New York — ''produce has fallen in price 
'' from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent since the interference 
" of the executive with the public revenue; and land, land itself, 
" the great capital of the country — the form in which the vast pro- 
*' portion of its property consists — has fallen, within the same time, 
''to the same extent. I receive this information from the best 
"sources, and to which I give entire credit. Here then is a re- 
" duction of the vvhole property of the people, twenty-five or thir- 
' ' ty-three per cent, a striking ofl' at a blow, the quarter or one-third 
" of the whole value of what they possess! Sir, is this tolerable?" 
I turn to a gazette published in the neighborhood of this ter- 
rific scene — and what do I see? " A farm of one hundred 
" acres Was recently sold, in the town of Galen, in the county 
"of Wayne, for ^30 per acre, in cash; this farm was valued 
"two years ago by two discreet farmers in the neighborhood 
"to be worth ^20 per acre; increase in value in two years 50 
"per cent. A farm of thirty acres, in the town of Marion, in 
"Wayne county, was sold last fall at ^25 per acre; the pur- 
" chaser has this spring sold the same farm for ^30 per acre; 
" increase in value in six months 20 per cent. A farm in the 
"town of Marion was sold this spring for ^30 per acre; two 
"years ago was it valued at ^20 dollars per acre; increase in value 
" in two years 50 per cent, A farmer in Yates county purchased 
"a farm at 553,000 during the last winter, and was offered imme- 
" diately afterwards §1,000 for his bargain, being 333 per cent 
" increase in value. A farm in Jerusalem, Yates county, which 
"was valued last fall at §10 per acre, has been sold this month 
"for §16 per acre." 

Again, "Hov/ tender is the system — what danger of explosion 
" on any untoward event!" is the fearful foreboding of the repre- 
sentative from Connecticut, in regard to the state banks. We turn 
to the list of them throughout the Union, and find they amount to 
more than six hundred. We see all the engines brought to bear 
to effect their destruction; the halls of Congress resounding with 
expressions of distrust; the newspapers advising the presentation 
of their notes; the bank of the United States assuming an attitude 
unfriendly if not hostile to many of them. Yet where is the ten- 
derness, where the explosion: A few banks of I rifling capital and 



25 

mismanaged long before this terrible removal of the deposits—^ 
their very names scarcely known — are all that answer these lamen-^ 
table forebodings. If laws are passed for the incorporation of new 
ones, an alacrity to subscribe is evinced, utterly inconsistent with 
any notion of excessive tenderness, any danger of explosion. I 
observe, during the very height of these dangerous times, evid- 
ences of confidence in them not to be mistaken. The subscrip- 
tions to the stock of the Albany City Bank amounted to 
^1,142,900, being ^642,900 more than the amount of its capi- 
tal; the subscriptions to the stock of the Phoenix Bank, in New 
York, exceeded three times the amount of its capital; the sub- 
scriptions to the stock of the Commeicial Bank of New York, 
amounted to ^1,300,000, nearly three times the amount of its 
capital; the subscriptions to the stock of the Orleans County 
Bank amounted to ^680,200, exceeding its capital ^380,200; 
the subscriptions to the stock of the Sackett's Harbour Bank 
were about three times the amount of its capital. Indeed, fel- 
low citizens, if there is one circumstance beyond all others, that 
displays the solid credit, resources and integrity of the people, 
it is the manner in which the state banks have resisted the panic, 
raised mainly to crush them, and to found more effectually on 
their ruins the overgrown institution, whose place they arc so well 
able to supply. 

" Men could no longer fulfil their engagements by the customa- 
*'ry means; property fell in value and thousands failed," — is 
another of the exclamations of an honorable senator. I turn to 
the records of our courts here, and I find that the number of In- 
solvent applicants in June 1833 was three hundred and twenty- 
seven, and in June 1834 was only two hundred and eighty- 
six. I have no means to ascertain how it may have been else- 
where, but I cannot suppose that the immediate victims and wit- 
nesses of the panic, are those who would least suffer from its 
power. 

It were easy to trace these political and selfish alarmists through 
other errors equally glaring; to show that at no period have the 
solid resources of our country been less injured and impaired; that 
whatever of partial inconvenience or suffering has existed — and 
this, which of us who has seen, as we have, under our own eyes, 
instances of oppression and the effect of panic, is disposed to deny 
— all this has had its origin solely in the ends aimed at by the selfish 
coalition between the bank and its political ;dlies. or in the means 



26' 

adopted to attain them. But the task would be as useless as it 
is tedious. Why trace these misrepresentations through all fheir 
petty sinuosities, when it needs but to turn our eyes on the broad 
aspect of our land to see their falsity, and to smile at the credulity 
or the cunning, which could thus hope to impose on the sagacity 
of the American people? 

But, fellow citizens, I have done. I have endeavored, as the 
mostappropriate way of performing the part you have assigned me, 
in this celebration of our national anniversary, to call your atten- 
tion to the present position of our country, and to see what part is 
to be performed by those, who cherish and would maintain the li- 
berties that were won, and the institutions that were established, 
fifty-eight years ago; for I hold that to be but a vain and silly fes- 
tival, which, in empty ceremony, lets slip by the preservation of 
solid rights and the performance of sacred duties. I have endea- 
vored to show you, that never in those eight and fifty years, have 
the American people been more seriously called on to examine 
how they stand and what they are to do. Never was there 
a period when the democratic family should rally more warmly 
together, and sustain the ancient landmarks of their faith. Never 
was there a period when we ought to look more anxiously to 
that firm, decided, and resistless expression of popular opinion, 
which, however it may be reviled or underrated, will be found to 
be invariably just. To that decision we shall all of us cheerfully 
submit, whatever it may be. If it shall tell us that the system of 
administration adopted by our opponents was wiser than our ovvnj 
if it shall give us back all the partizan protection of the American 
system, or sustain the fatal delusion of nullification, or permit the 
lavish and selfish appropriation of the public money on works not 
of a national character; — nay more, if it shall say that the exist- 
ence of a great moneyed corporation has become an essential fea- 
ture of our republic; that we must, of necessity, have among us, 
created by ourselves, a creature, heretofore only fabled by romance, 
possessing the powers of a giant, but endued not with the percep- 
tion of right or wrong; that our fortunes — the fortunes of free- 
men — ought to be depressed or elevated at the nod of a bank; 
our political lessons learned from the pamphlets or newspapers it 
scatters abroad; our public servants, chosen by ourselves, estimat- 
ed according to the thermometer of its passions or interests; our 
halls of legislation filled with the declamation of its agents or its 
debtors; — above all, if it shall justify a coalition of political aspi- 



27 

rants, in breaking down, for their own ends, the obstacles placed 
by the people in the way of their ambition; condemning public 
officers; denying to the accused the common right, not only of 
trial, but even of being heard; passing in secret upon private 
characters; driving from the national councils men of unques- 
tioned genius and unsullied honor; delaying the progress of public 
business; scattering the language of dissention through the land; 
if, indeed, such shall be the decision of the American people, to 
that decision we must bow — saving to ourselves only the sad conso- 
lation that our struggle has been manly, our resolution has never 
faltered, our hopes have never yielded, our trust in the republican 
spirit of our country has never for an instant failed. 

But it cannot be, — my countrymen, it cannot be. The spirit that 
animated our forefathers is not dead; the sons of men who risked 
their fortunes for their freedom, are not to be frightened at the panic 
of a bank; nor are the descendants of those who braved armies from 
abroad, to be scared by the noisy intrigues of ambition at home. 
Our country will go onward, as she has done, in her noble march. 
We shall smile ere long at the efforts and presumption of these 
our days. We shall meet together, as we now do, on many a 
future anniversary of our independence, to rejoice in the unmoved 
grandeur of our political institutions, and to confess that corrup- 
tion and ambition, oppression and faction, when exposed to the 
view and judgment of the people, war against them alike in vain. 
And God grant! that, when centuries shall have rolled by, and 
our people are dwelling on every mountain summit, and filling 
every fertile plain, from the waves of one ocean to another, the 
stranger who shall chance to be among them, on this returning day, 
may behold them celebrating the festival of our nation's birth, 
blessed — not only with extended empire, and unbounded wealth — 
but blessed with that, without which it were better to dwell with- 
in narrow limits and a rugged land, a government of equal laws, of 
equal rights, founded, upheld, examined and controlled by the 
watchful spirit of the people. 



Je '10 



